Staging your house can be difficult.
Staging your house should draw attention to its best features.
Meanwhile, you should have a clear explanation for any issues.
Home improvements come into this. Some add value to your selling price. Others have the opposite effect.
Here’s a list of home improvements that do not add value in the UK.
1. Overdone decorations
Decorating your house is one thing – but you don’t want to overdo it!
Elaborate landscaping in your garden can be expensive to maintain.
Using premium materials in a new kitchen or bathroom refit can be problematic, especially if they’re so rare that the new owner will struggle to replace them.
The same applies to staging your house for viewings. Adding ornaments, rugs, vases and art in every room is rarely good.
You need to let your property ‘breathe’ and depersonalise it. This allows your viewers to imagine themselves living there.
2. Niche rooms
Buyers might not be impressed with niche and unique rooms.
A home bar room might not be appreciated if the buyers don’t drink. And a meditation or yoga room could be useless if they don’t get involved with these activities.
Game rooms are less appropriate if the family doesn’t have children or wants to keep their children off games. And a walk-in dressing room is a luxury that not everyone desires.
For all these room types, make sure to emphasise their versatility. The owners could want to convert them into something else.
Otherwise, these niche rooms may be seen as a negative and devalue your home.
3. Low-quality renovations
When you get renovations done on your house, make sure it’s to a high standard.
DIY renovations can be detrimental if you do a terrible job. And this also applies to any professional you bring in. They’ll cost you in negotiations and final selling price.
4. Extensions without planning permission
Everyone assumes that extensions are a great thing – but not always!
Even if it improves your square footage, it’s useless if you didn’t get planning permission.
This is often seen in protected areas. Local councils want influence over aesthetic changes to houses in the town. And this means that you need to run extensions past them.
Without planning permission, you can be forced to undo the work. This will cost money, reduce your selling price, and cause a major inconvenience.
You may even be fined. Once a lack of permission comes to light, get ready for your buyers to drop their offer.
5. Wallpaper and paint
Most staging experts recommend you don’t get new wallpaper and paint for your home.
While it might sound like a smart idea, each person’s taste in these things is unique. Even if you think it looks fabulous – that doesn’t mean they will!
Avoid strong and gaudy colours. And it could be worth re-doing paint like this altogether before a sale.
The new owners may change the functionality of each room.
6. Artificial grass
There are very few subjects that divide opinion more than artificial grass. Some people consider it an asset – but others don’t want it!
Whether it’s attractive or not depends on each person, and how well it’s done.
Most experts don’t recommend shelling out on artificial grass. There’s no guarantee you’ll get this money back.
People may view it as unattractive or ‘stale’, especially if they’ve got young children.
7. Adding a swimming pool
A swimming pool is a huge investment. There are typically tens of thousands of pounds on the line.
So, you can’t afford to get this wrong. If you go down this route, you must manage your costs carefully. And double-check that there’s demand for it in the local area.
Lots of buyers consider this an unnecessary headache. Maintenance is expensive.
And not everyone can swim, which could make it redundant!
In the UK, outdoor swimming pools are especially divisive, because the weather rarely permits this activity.
8. Removing period features
Period features are a special part of any property.
If you try to remove these, it’s not advisable, because it can reduce your house value!
Most people love period features. They add character to your house. Examples include:
- Ornate fireplaces
- Decorative wood
- Sash windows
- Ceiling roses.
You should keep all of these in place. Period properties sell for more, and these features prove the history of your home.
Spending money to remove them can be counterproductive.
